Route today was cruising the PC ridgeline between the Willows and USA Bowl.

The bluebird created perfect visibility for viewing avalanche activity over this past storm, and I guess what surprised me most was what I didn't see - that is, the lack of widespread natural activity from this storm. It is very likely that much of the activity occurred earlier in the storm and crowns filled in from the heavy snow and strong winds.

Brett described the forecast perfectly ("Things will become more stubborn today and obvious signs of avalanche instability may not be present") and apart from a handful of slides and several loud, thundering collapses, there were few obvious signs of the present avalanche hazard. The storm snow provides for excellent travel, and the dense snow that fell on Monday makes for excellent riding, even on low-angled slopes. I dug numerous quick pits and there was a fair amount of spatial variability (CTN to even CTV down in basal facets on one slope), so difficult to hang your hat on results. But overall the storm slab appears to have stiffened up quite a bit and it is bridging the layer of near-surface facets.

Overall I am thinking that in the Wasatch, we just aren't used to warm windy storms such as this and that perhaps things are healing faster than we are accustomed to. But even though my PacNW friends tell me that 2 days after a storm in the Cascades you can ski anything, the 3-4" of SWE was a rapid and substantial load for our weak Wasatch snowpack.

Came away with the feeling that increasingly unlikely you can trigger a slide, but our poor snowpack structure with a persistent weak layer still needs time. Fortunately there is plenty of safe and excellent travel and ski conditions.

First photo is of what appears to me (from quite a distance) of a partially filled in crown on a SE aspect just below 10K. This is just up the ridge of the large slide along West Willow ridgeline.

Second photo is of riming found on windward aspects on aspen trees.

Hazard rating?? I would have to call it Moderate as I do not think natural avalanches are possible. But this is the real-deal Moderate and not the "Moderate is the new Low".